Fat lady folding up her music stand, eyeing exit

Stricken UK integrator 2e2 - in administration and unable to find a buyer - effectively started to wind down operations today by confirming 627 people were being let go with just a small group of data centre staffers left to keep things "ticking over".

Employees were told at 8.30am to get onto a conference call at scheduled for 10am and were informed of their fate, according to technical architect Phil Arundell.

He took to Twitter to reveal details of the call, saying that Simon Granger, joint administrator at FTI had revealed:

"No buyer for the whole business has been found.

"[The] cost base [is] too high and [there is] no prospect of getting a buyer for [the] whole business," he said.

Negotiations took place last weekend with Daisy Group and Computacenter, as revealed by The Channel, but both parties walked away from the deal as customers defected from 2e2.

Arundell said on Twitter that "627 people let go today" and that FTI was "retaining a very small core of people to keep things ticking over … few people working on business critical contracts".

Perhaps softening the blow for those staff, they will be paid for work in January and so far in February, which is more than can be said of the 345 people cut from the business last week.

In running commentary, Arundell relayed that unsecured dividend is very small, which will presumably hit suppliers, contractors and staff expenses.

Updated

Simon Granger, joint administrator at FTI Consulting, sent a statement to us, saying, "Despite a significant number of initial expressions of interest in the UK business, we were unable to conclude a transaction which preserved the business as a going concern.

"Regrettably, this failure to conclude a sale coupled with a significant future funding requirement has resulted in large parts of the UK business being closed, resulting in the loss of 627 jobs. We are in discussions with customers to secure the ongoing operation of the Data Centres and Service Desks while alternative options are explored," he added.

The international businesses including Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, the Channel Island and the US - are unaffected by the administration, and discussions with buyers are due to take place.

FTI Consulting said it will post important information for customers on 2e2's website today. ®